Blogger Awards

After a stressful night of homework and other challenges, I awoke Tuesday morning to find, to my delight, that I had been nominated for two separate blogger awards: The Blogger Recognition Award and The Versatile Blogger Award. For those who aren’t aware of these awards, or perhaps you’re not a blogger, these are awards given to bloggers from their fellow, peer bloggers. If a peer pats you on the back and tells you: “Hey…Good Job!”, well, in my mind, that’s the highest form of respect. I am excited, elated and honored! 🙂 Let’s get on with the show. (BEWARE! This is a much longer blog than I would normally write. I hope you enjoy!)

The Blogger Recognition Award

The Rules:-

1. Write a post to show your award

2. Thank blogger(s) who nominated you & provide a link to their blog

3. Give a brief story of how your blog started

4. Give 2 pieces of advice for new bloggers

5. Nominate 15 bloggers of your choice for the award

6. Comment on each blog to let them know that you’ve nominated them & provide a link to your post

THANK YOU SMILING DREAMER!!

A great big, HUGE THANK YOU to Smiling Dreamer, who nominated me for both awards. Smiling Dreamer is a teenage blogger from Cairo, Egypt and calls herself “a teen like any other who comes from Egypt.” I love reading her blogs and always come away with a smile on my face. She is a witty, engaging and talented writer . Make sure you visit her blog. Oh, and if you’re going to Cairo on vacation, she recently wrote a piece about life in Cairo called Cairo is Cool 🙂, which includes places to go and things to see. I am also providing a link to her award article, Awesome Awards, so you can see the other phenomenal bloggers she nominated, along with me. THANK YOU, ONCE AGAIN, SMILING DREAMER, for the 2 nominations, but also for your kindness and support since my blogging adventure began. Keep up the wonderful work you do, I can’t wait to read your next post…and.. Good luck on your exams! 🙂

How did I my blog start…

I’ve always enjoyed writing. For some reason, I can communicate more effectively and think more clearly when I write. That being said, writing a blog never occurred to me. Then, about 3 years ago, I was working for a local credit union that needed someone to take over writing their blog. I had no idea what I was doing, but said “sure, why not!” I wrote the credit union’s blog for about a year and a half, and LOVED IT. When I quit my job to focus on my master’s degree, I found I missed blogging. That’s when the idea hit me: I could create a blog to track my experiences as I earned my master’s degree, and share the nutrition information I learned along the way. So, about 1 1/2 years ago, in the summer of 2015, using the profile from my blogging days with the credit union, I created The Purple Almond and wrote my first post, which can be found here.

Then, school started and so did the excuses. You know the ones…”I’m too busy, I’ll do it tomorrow.” Well I said this everyday. Then, one day, I realized a year and a half had passed since I wrote my first blog. So, on November 30, 2016 I wrote my second blog…and haven’t looked back. I have definitely found my niche. I love blogging. Probably the best part of blogging isn’t the actual writing, which is rewarding. The part I love the best is the other bloggers. I have quickly become immersed in the blogging world. It is a wonderful, exciting, and fascinating place, filled with people of all ages, from all corners of the world and all walks of life. Bloggers are wonderfully inspiring, motivating and supportive of one another. Thank you to each of you for your support, encouragement and kindness. Keep up the good work everyone! 🙂

Tips for new bloggers…from a new blogger? Well…

When it comes to blogging tips, I think you’ll find most experienced bloggers will tell you similar things. I’ll share tips given to me. So, here we go.

TIP #1: SOCIALIZE! This is probably the best piece of advice I received from a fellow blogger. You have to get out there…FOLLOW– If you want followers, you have to follow other people. You can’t wait for people to find you – go after what you want. You get what you give. Karma baby! People will be more likely to come and check out your blog, if you’ve followed theirs. COMMENT-Bloggers LOVE comments, I know I do. So don’t be afraid to post an opinion. Do you love a post? Say so. Did the blogger ask a question in the post? Answer it. You get the idea. By commenting on other people, you’ll draw attention to yourself and your blog, while supporting the other blog. It’s a win-win! LIKE-We all want to be liked, including what we post. It all goes back to what you want, and you want “likes.” REBLOG/REPOST-There’s no better way to support another blogger than to repost/reblog their content. It helps you and gives their blog much needed exposure.

So get out there and socialize. It’s fun! It supports others! It helps you!

TIP #2: BE TRUE TO YOURSELF: People will tell you to do the following: Post lots of content, yes…Be creative…yes…But more important than that, or even socializing, is to be yourself, and the rest will follow. Your blog will automatically be filled with lots of creative posts and content if you are true to yourself. After all you are the only you there is in the universe. How much more unique does it get than that? Besides, why start a blog in the first place if you don’t have something unique to contribute to the world. People will automatically be attracted to you and your blog when you put a unique spin on the things you love.

I decided to “share the love” and nominate different people for each award. There are just too many wonderful blogs out there. So, let the nominations begin!

The Versatile Blogger Award

THANK YOU, once again Smiling Dreamer! Thank you for the nomination, your kindness, your support and sharing your wonderful blog with the world. Meeting phenomenal people like you is what makes this blogging thing so rewarding.

Okay! I guess that wraps it up. I’ll be posting to all the nominees comments shortly after this is published.

One final thank you to Smiling Dreamer for the nomination. Thank you to all my followers and everyone who takes the time to read my blog. I appreciate that you take time out of your busy lives to visit my blog.

Finally, my wish for you:

May all your dreams come true, except one, so you always have something to strive for.

Well, that was a surprise! Thank you 🙏🏻 That was very kind of you. I am very bad at these, I have one that’s been waiting since the summer of last year! I get stuck on nominating other bloggers who haven’t already been nominated. 15 is an awful lot. You and I began from similar backgrounds and for similar reasons. But I will hopefully get to that when I eventually write a proper response. Thanks again and well done yourself 👏🏻🙌🏻

It was truly my pleasure. I completely understand. This was the first time I was nominated and it absolutely is a big job. Whew! I can tell you, that award blog took me a couple days to write (writing, figuring out who to nominate, etc.). But, I think it is an important part of what we do. We’re all in this together. Thank you for your kind words.

Oh My God! Thankyou so so so so much! I’m speechless after reading everything you’ve written about me & my blog! This makes me so happy! It’s really my pleasure – you deserve it! You are such an awesome & supportive blogger who deserves to be rewarded & that’s why I nominated you! I’m delighted that I’ve met you (online of course!) & that you like my posts! Also, thanks for the shoutout, the links to my posts, the instagram post, the good luck wishes & all your support – it means everything to me! I’m glad you did the awards post & I really enjoyed reading your facts & how your blog started! Great advice & tips too – I’m sure newbies will find it very useful! Ok, I’ll stop now since I really need to go & do some last-minute revision for my accounting exam tomorrow. Sorry if this was too long. Keep those lovely posts of yours coming! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Tamara, I am so elated and so humbled by your nomination. Your nomination has made me realize the importance of never giving up and use our platform to make a difference in the world. Although I am new to the community, thank you so much for your warm welcome and support. Words cannot express my gratitude. I am happy for our blogger friendship and I look forward to supporting you throughout your journey. Thank you again!

You are so welcome! I was in awe when I first visited your website. It is fabulous! (I’m not the only one who thinks so! 👍) Keep it up. You are right, we will use our platform to help people. I always say , as long as I help 1 person, it’s worth it. You can rest assured that you have helped me! 😇🙏🍾💐🎁🎊

Thankyou so much for the nomination Tamara. Your award post is awesome! So much great info, I must admit that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by all this…I really never expected people to take such quick notice of my blog. I will try my very best to repost, I am still trying to figure a few things out all in between homeschooling my 3 children and teaching piano. Craziness!! Thankyou very much again for this award.

Congrats, Tamara! And thanks so much for nominating me, I feel like I just started blogging yesterday (which is not far from the truth). Funnily enough, I was just drafting a post to nominate you, so you beat me to it. Love your blog and the way you promote wellbeing.

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A bit about me:

Welcome to Purple Almond Wellness!
I ’m Tamara Hoerner, MHNE, ROHP/RNCP, founder of Purple Almond Wellness. I am a nutrition consultant and wellness educator. I work with middle-age individuals to help support insomnia, brain health and develop whole body wellness, in order to improve the quality of their mid-life years. Heart and Alzheimer’s diseases run in my family and I struggle with insomnia and weight loss, so I strive to help others with similar conditions. Using only nutrition, I rid my body of seasonal allergies, Psoriatic Arthritis and migraines, as well as cured my insomnia. I know what it takes to use food and whole body wellness, especially in middle age. As a wellness educator and Summa Cum Laude graduate of Hawthorn University, I develop personalized nutrition plans and wellness education sessions, to help clients.

For me, health isn't just about food it's about living a positive, happy, healthy life..

Where food is concerned, I'm all about getting back to the basics, good old fashioned traditional organic, whole food, the kind your great-grandmother used to eat. You'll find no processed foods here. Just good food to heal your whole body.

Stress plays a large part in the physical health of our body. I, therefore, believe in using anything that relieves stress and heals the body, including: mediation, yoga, music, laughter, inspiration and helping others. You'll find all these included in my blog as well.